Nearly 20 years ago, I began writing to those I had the privilege to lead each Friday afternoon about life and business.
In 2012, I was contacted by Jim Kouzes, half of the bestselling author duo of Kouzes and Posner, of whom I was already familiar, writers of the very successful The Leadership Challenge | How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations, then in its 4th printing. Jim had heard of my practice of writing using stories and wanted to feature it in the upcoming 5th edition of the book. Needless to say, I was floored. To be included by Jim and Barry and with the sort of people they call attention to was, for me then, and still, the honor of a lifetime.
Now, imagine my feelings when five years later, Jim reached out to let me know that he and Barry wanted to include my storytelling practice again, in what would be the 6th printing of The Leadership Challenge. I was then the Chief Commercial Officer at Pirelli in Milan, Italy – a very nice job for sure, but hardly a major influencer in US global business. So to be considered again for inclusion in The Leadership Challenge was Abigails deal to me.
So when I decided to write my own book, it was important to me that it have a quote from Jim and Barry on the cover, not just because I had been featured in their books, but because I had learned so much about being a better leader from what they wrote. And I’m pleased to announce that there will, in fact, be a quote from them on the cover of Letters, a quote about my storytelling, which is at the heart of my book, The Not So Subtle Art of Caring: Letters on Leadership and why I wrote it in the first place.
So thanks to Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, for their friendship, for their continued confidence in me and for inspiring me to write Letters.